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Alexis Coning

Professor Stalbird

English 1201

5 April 2018

Research Essay

I believe that the advancement of robots will be able to help people in the

workplace by assisting them, and making their jobs run smoother. Of course there is a

point where it might go too far, but if we miss that point we are on track to have a

positive future with robots.

When I first started this research project, my initial thought was that robots were

unnecessary and becoming too advanced. I remember writing in my research proposal

that robots were terrifying because they were out to take over human existence. After

doing plenty of research with an open mind, my perspective has actually changed. I now

believe that robots are a good thing, when used in moderation. When they are used to

help, not take over. I think it is necessary in these types of arguments to have done your

research before forming an opinion because there is so much to know.

Robots can be used for a number of things. They can be used in the classroom

as a helper and to help students learn quicker through interaction. As a student, I can

agree that having access to hands on interaction helps to retain knowledge. In one of

the sources I used, the article talked about how a robot was used to play games with

students in the classroom while tracking their progress. I found the quote ““An additional

outcome of the study was the significant difference in the perception of the children

about the difficulty of the game – the game with the robot was seen as more challenging
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and the robot – as a smarter opponent.” This quote supports my statement by

reassuring that the robots are being used for educational purposes. It also points out

that in each instance, the robot was the smarter opponent, which requires the students

to work harder to be able to play the game on the same level as the robot.

Another way that robots can be beneficial to humankind is in factory work. A

robotic arm that is used to package and sort through things on an assembly line so that

humans don’t have to do it over and over again. This is extremely beneficial because it

will help make the work more accurate and efficient, and will relieve some stress from

the factory workers. The quote “Such calibration is widely used in reverse engineering,

robot-assisted medical applications, visually guided robot grinding, and robotic visual

inspection.” works to expand on how useful and versatile this robotic arm will be.

Some people fear that robots will become too advanced and start to take over.

This has become a concern, especially after the newest and most advanced robot,

Sophia. Sophia has been granted citizenship, and it legally allowed to work. She can

have normal conversations with people, and do regular human things. This is

concerning because she has no real purpose. It seems as though she were just an

experiment. The idea of Sophia having ‘skin’ and ‘hair’ has freaked some people out as

well. She looks decently human like, which means from here forward these robots will
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only get more and more realistic. It is predicted that someday we may not be able to

physically tell the difference between humans and robots.

It seems like when we hear the word ‘robot’ we only think of robots like Sophia.

But the truth is there are hundreds of other kinds of robots. Your smartphone essentially

is a robot because if you say “hey siri” it will respond and have a small conversation with

you. But it is a piece of technology. This is because it is programmed to your voice, and

is listening to you at all times. Scientists are trying to develop a type of drone that can

deliver packages right to your front door. Instead of UPS of FedEx, a drone would be

programmed with your address to drop the package off then return back to the facility.

This is a controversial topic, because drones will only be able to carry packages up to a

certain size and weight. It also might be difficult for the drone to be successful if you live

in a very big city. The quote “Companies like Amazon have big ideas for drones that can

deliver packages right to your door. But even putting aside the policy issues,

programming drones to fly through cluttered spaces like cities is difficult. Being able to

avoid obstacles while traveling at high speeds is computationally complex, especially for

small drones that are limited in how much they can carry onboard for real-time

processing.” supports my statement that drones will only be able to carry some

packages due to size and weight. Here is an image of a drone flying for “Amazon” to

deliver a small package.

Another type of robot that humans should allow to become popular is the fire

fighting robot. This is definitely my favorite robotic invention out of any of the others,

because it is so smart and helpful. This robot firefighter will be able to withstand much

more heat that a human firefighter would be able to do. I believe that this invention is a
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great idea because sometimes in house fires, everyone unfortunately doesn’t make it

out. These robots will be able to enter a burning house to retrieve important belongings

without feeling a thing, because they have no feeling. “Further, it will sense and

communicate information regarding these situations in real time with the server. The

robot is fixed with multi-sensors and further, a driver circuit has been integrated for

communication in these hazardous situations through Zigbee and a data acquisition

system (DAQ).” This quote gives some information on how a fire fighting robot will be

beneficial to humankind, especially in these situations.

Some might still argue that robots are becoming too powerful and too advanced.

And the truth is, they can be. The “self-driving” cars are one thing I will most likely never

be able to agree with. These cars seem dangerous and unreliable. It is scary to imagine

driving a car and not being in control, especially in

busy cities. It seems more fitting to say that these

cars are actually driving us. These cars might not

always be able to detect where they’re at when

there is a high volume of traffic. The quote “Mobile

robot navigation and obstacle avoidance in dynamic and

unknown environments is one of the most challenging problems in the field of robotics.”

supports my statement that these cars may not always know where they are going, and

would possibly require the help of a human to drive the car instead.

One of the most interesting robots I found while researching was one that

actually gives you a massage. The article I read from gave real life reviews from people

who have received a massage from this robot, and they all said they weren’t even able
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to tell that it wasn’t a real human performing the massage. The feedback from the

humans goes to show that these robots are exceptional, and are able to carry out this

task successfully. The quote “It is used alongside a doctor and massage therapist and,

the developers said, "provides a massage that is described by patients as almost

indistinguishable from a professional masseuse." goes to support the fact that this robot

is capable of performing just as well as a professional masseuse, if not better!

Going back to the beginning of this paper when I talked about robots being used

in the classroom, this robot is able to put together and solve mathematical algorithms.

This is extremely impressive to me, considering algorithms can be quite complex. It

amazes me to think that a robot, with an artificial brain is able to do this so easily, when

even the smartest person might have trouble doing so. Some people might see this as

too much, because if these robots are doing all this work, then what is left for the

teachers to do? I believe that this one in unnecessary and should only be used when

desperately needed. Although it could be used to speed up the process when trying to

configure an algorithm, it is unnecessary because this should be the job of the teachers

and students.

It seems that many of these robotic inventions are used for educational

purposes. This next robot is again used in the classroom to play learning games with

the students. The robot is obviously always going to one up the student, because it has

access to internet at all times and can quickly find an answer to anything. The students

played an educational learning game, once with the robot and once without and took a

quiz after each game. The results showed that the students learned more when they

played the game with the robot. I believe this is because it made it more challenging for
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the students and required them to do more critical thinking. The quote “When the

students’ responses to the interview questions were examined, it was revealed that the

students generally had positive attitudes and that the education given was motivating

and entertaining and contributed to their learning of programming.” follows up on how

the robots were beneficial to the students learning experience.

There are hundreds of ways in which I feel robots will be a great help to

humankind, some I have already listed. This next one stood out to me the most because

I believe it will be extremely helpful to the elderly. It is a robot that you keep in your

home, and it helps you with simple tasks like putting away groceries. This is a great

invention to save us time, and also help us when we are old and can’t get around as

easily. This robotic ‘arm’ can sense what it is grabbing and know exactly where to put it

away at. You will have to have the robot specially programmed to your home, which can

be very expensive, but in the long run it may save you some trouble. The quote ““This

can be applied to warehouse sorting, but also may be used to pick things from your

kitchen cabinet or clear debris after an accident.” shows the versatility of the robotic arm

and how it can be helpful for several different situations.

In the end, I was able to gather a lot of new information from conducting this

research. Enough to change my viewpoint and be able to teach others what I have

learned. I believe that the advancement of robots is becoming a hot topic in today's

society, and the people themselves are responsible for doing their research and

understanding why these robots are going to be helpful rather than harmful. In the end,

we are not in full control of these advancements, so we will have to learn to live with

them either way.

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Works Cited

Barakova, E. l., et al. “Socially Grounded Game Strategy Enhances Bonding and

Perceived Smartness of a Humanoid Robot.” Connection Science, vol. 30, no. 1,

Mar. 2018, pp. 81-98. EBSCOhost, doi: 10.1080/09540091.2017.1350938. Web.

27 March 2018.
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Cankaya, Serkan, et al. “Education on Programming with Robots: Examining

Students’ Experiences and Views. “Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry,

vol. 8, no. 4, Oct. 2017, pp.428-445. EBSCOhost, doi: 10.17569/tojqi.343218.

Web. 27 March 2018.

Chu | MIT News Office, Jennifer. “Robo-picker Grasps and Packs.” MIT News.

N.p., 19 Feb. 2018. Web. 27 March 2018.

CSAIL, Adam Conner-Simons |. “Programming Drones to Fly in the Face of

Uncertainty.” MIT News. N.p., 12 Feb. 2018. Web. 27 March 2018.

Madhevan, B., et al. “Modelling, Simulation and Mechatronics Design of a

Wireless Automatic Fire Fighting Surveillance Robot.” Defence Science Journal,

vol. 67, no. 5, Sept. 2017, pp. 572-580. EBSCOhost, doi: 10.14429/dsj.67.10237.

Web. 15 March 2018.

NGUYEN, Tinh and LE Linh. “Neural Network-Based Adaptive Tracking Control

for a Nonholonomic Wheeled Mobile Robot with Unknown Wheel Slips, Model

Uncertainties, and Unknown Bounded Disturbances.” Turkish Journal of

Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences, vol. 26, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 378-

392. EBSCOhost, doi: 10.3906/elk-1705-167. Web. 15 March 2018.

SADEGHIBIGHAM, Bahram and Farhad SHAMSFAKHR. “A Neural Network

Approach to Navigation of a Mobile Robot and Obstacle Avoidance in Dynamic

and Unknown Environments.” Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering &

Computer Sciences, vol. 25, no. 3, June 2017, pp. 1629-1642. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.3096/elk-1603-75. Web. 15 March 2018.

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